Same here.
Caliper bracket bolts
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 10,924
Likes: 853
From: Daytona Beach FL
Brakes are a safety issue, and I'm certainly not going to tell you to go against the advice of the manual.
I think the lawyers and engineers got together and the committee outcome resulted in the most CYA/safety concious recommendation.
Actually, when torquing a fastener (bolt in this case) you're really stretching it by a certain amount. Most of the time that's to some spec about 75% or so of the yield strength of the bolt (the point where it deforms and doesn't return to its original length).
Some bolts are "torque to yield", where when you torque to spec they have stretched passed the yield point and permanently deform. That may very well be what the caliper bolts do, but being on a safety related system like the brakes I suspect the lawyers are doing the most CYA thing they can do whether they are ductile torque to yield bolts or not.
The best thing is to replace them, but I haven't.
Bob
Instructor
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 114
Likes: 0
From: Reading PA
I reused the bolts several times on my C5 and plan to do so on my C6 as well. The reason I was comfortable doing this was that the bolts are the same as on the C4, yet the C4 had a much higher torque spec. Therefore it is unlikely that the spec is designed to torque to yield in the C5/C6. The reason for the recommeded replacement may be the thread lock compound that replacement parts have already applied. I clean the bolts & apply new locktight each time.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 6,444
Likes: 371
From: Maryville TN
St. Jude Donor '06-13,'16-'17, '19
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